Elisabeth Brown, Ph.D., president of Laguna Greenbelt, Inc., stands above the under construction Orange County Great Park Wildlife Corridor in Irvine on Tuesday, March 13, 2018. Brown was one of five speakers at the site in an environmental roundtable titled, Connecting the Dots. Environment. Sustainability. California’s Future. (Photo by Mark Rightmire, Orange County Register/SCNG)

IRVINE — Bobcats, coyotes, California gnatcatchers and other wildlife species will soon have a way to move safely between the Santa Ana Mountains and the coast.

The public, for the first time on Tuesday, March 13, had a chance to look at a developing 2.5-mile long wildlife corridor at the eastern end of the Orange County Great Park.

To invite wildlife to travel, hunt, nest and mate, the $13 million project will restore native plants on 178 acres of land – larger than Disneyland and California Adventure combined – previously used for farming and by the former Marine Corps Air Station El Toro golf course.

Invited guests listen to an environmental roundtable titled, Connecting the Dots. Environment. Sustainability. California’s Future., in a large tent adjacent to the Orange County Great Park Wildlife Corridor in Irvine on Tuesday, March 13, 2018. (Photo by Mark Rightmire, Orange County Register/SCNG)

An environmental roundtable titled, Connecting the Dots. Environment. Sustainability. California’s Future., was held in the under construction Orange County Great Park Wildlife Corridor in Irvine on Tuesday, March 13, 2018, Speaking on the importance of urban open spaces and collaborative environmental efforts were from left,: Steve Churm, moderator and chief communications officer for FivePoint; Jonathan Parfey, executive director of Climate Resolve; Elisabeth Brown, Ph.D., president of Laguna Greenbelt, inc.; Emile Haddad, chairman and CEO of FivePoint Holdings LLC; Terry Watt, statewide environmental leader; Joel Levin, executive director of Plug in America. (Photo by Mark Rightmire, Orange County Register/SCNG)

Elisabeth Brown, Ph.D., president of Laguna Greenbelt, Inc., stands above the under construction Orange County Great Park Wildlife Corridor in Irvine on Tuesday, March 13, 2018. Brown was one of five speakers at the site in an environmental roundtable titled, Connecting the Dots. Environment. Sustainability. California’s Future. (Photo by Mark Rightmire, Orange County Register/SCNG)

In this view looking west, the under construction Orange County Great Park Wildlife Corridor winds its way through the Great Park in Irvine on Tuesday, March 13, 2018. (Photo by Mark Rightmire, Orange County Register/SCNG)

The corridor will plug the missing link of a wildlife pathway that goes 6 miles from the Cleveland National Forest to the Laguna Canyon area through freeways and developments, officials said.

Currently, animals living in more than 20,000 acres of coastal hills stretching north from Laguna Beach are isolated from open spaces in the rest of Orange County and San Diego County. They are forced to mate among themselves, leading to health problems.

Those who venture out of the habitat to find their kind often get hit by cars or get lost in neighborhoods.

By giving wildlife a safe passage to explore new habitat, the project will help increase the genetic diversity and improve health of secluded wildlife on the coast, said Elisabeth Brown, president of the nonprofit environmental group Laguna Greenbelt.

The corridor, accessible only to wildlife, is expected to open in mid-2019.

“There is no other major corridor connecting from the Santa Ana Mountains to the coast,” Brown said. “Nobody has done a 6-mile corridor crossing over an urban landscape. … If we can pull this off, and I don’t know why not, it would set the standard for what can be done.”

The wildlife corridor is part of 713 acres of the Great Park that developer FivePoint is building for the city, in exchange for the right to build thousands of homes around the park.

FivePoint in early January began construction of the corridor, which is an average 600 feet wide and up to 1,000 feet at its widest point. The land, sandwiched between commercial developments and future homes, is mostly dirt now, but will be covered with mulefat, willows, shrubs and cactus. There will be a seasonal stream as well as berms with vegetation on top to work as a sound and visual buffer.

“It’s really unique; nobody’s done this at this scale,” Tony Bomkamp, a biologist with Glenn Lukos Associates who designed the corridor, said at Tuesday’s unveiling event hosted by FivePoint, the city and Laguna Greenbelt.

Environmentalists have been pushing for a corridor between the mountains and the coast for decades.

“With all the developments and roads, a lot of our open space is fragmented, so we have all these islands of open space across Southern California,” Brown said.

There used to be mountain lions in the coastal hills, but they are gone now, Brown said. The Great Park corridor could help these animals migrate from the foothills of the Santa Ana Mountains to the coast, while providing homes for small rodents, she said.

An aerial image of the Orange County Great Park wildlife corridor facing south towards the Irvine Spectrum and the Laguna coastal hills. (Courtesy of FivePoint)

“This was the last remaining place where we could provide this connection,” Bomkamp said.

Brown said FivePoint in 2012 reached out to Laguna Greenbelt for consultation on the corridor. The developer also consulted the Natural Resources Defense Council, the Endangered Habitats League and the Friends of Rivers, Harbors and Parks, according to a news release.

The 713 acres of the Great Park will also feature agricultural fields, green space, trails and an 18-hole golf course.

“We haven’t finished work on the Great Park,” FivePoint chairman and CEO Emile Haddad said. “There’s also the Cultural Terrace with botanical gardens. When all is said and done, people are going to see that there’s something for everybody in this park.”

Tomoya Shimura covers Irvine for the Orange County Register. Prior to his stint at the Register, Tomoya had worked as a news reporter and sports writer for the Daily Press in Victorville. He won several awards for his work there, including the best business story from the California Newspaper Publishers Association. Tomoya received his M.S. in sports studies from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. He earned his B.A. in liberal arts from International Christian University in Tokyo.

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